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> It's always interesting to me that people can succeed on extreme diets like this rather than adjust their lifestyles to whole food home cooked healthy eating.

> It's always interesting to me that people can succeed on extreme diets like this rather than adjust their lifestyles to whole food home cooked healthy eating. Like almost no one can tolerate ketosis but they can do extreme diets like day+ fasting or fad diets. They don't actually succeed. They succeed for a short time, because of the motivation rush, and will post about their success; then they will lose the motivation and consequently their shape, but then obviously won't post about that. Restrictive diets are bound to fail, because it's like fighting gravity, and it's impossible to succeed for one reason or another - burning motivation/mental health being another factor. Dieting is something successful in the extremely long term, ie. decades. - overweight person loses weight in the short term: interesting blog post (for uninformed readers) - overweight person loses shape in the medium/long term: uninteresting because it shows that silver bullets don't work. - fit person stay fit through exercise and balanced diet: uninteresting, because it goes against the silver bullet approach.

scaladev 6y ago
As someone who lost 30 kg of excess weight and kept it off for many years, I second this comment. I have a few acquaintances ("friends" as Americans like to call them) who have gone through literally dozens of fad diets over the years, and either never lost a single pound, or gained it all back after they stopped "dieting". Not a single long term success story among them. When they ask me how I managed to keep the weight off for such a long time, I simply answer "eating what I always have, and calorie counting". Nobody likes to hear that for some reason.
- qz2 6y ago
  > When they ask me how I managed to keep the weight off for such a long time, I simply answer "eating what I always have, and calorie counting". Nobody likes to hear that for some reason. That'll be because of the human condition of cheating which is roughly a combination of "I'll do it next week" and "It wont hurt me if I do this a couple of times (a week)" and the worst of all "I don't have to count this if I apply some magical condition to it". It only doesn't work if you don't do it which all of the above are. And people don't want to hear that because they don't like hearing that they're failing, especially when they are.
- emerged 6y ago
  I’ve been calorie counting for many years and work out an hour per day on average. My father insists that I’m “skinny” (not fat) because I was “born that way” and “lucky” Many people don’t like to attribute their failure, or others success, to personal responsibility.
dirtyid 6y ago
While Nutrition science is kind of a joke and you can find papers supporting any position, this is a summary of "Long-term weight-loss maintenance: a meta-analysis of US studies": >People on a very low energy diet (VLED) were more successful at dieting that people on a hypocaloric balanced diet (HBD) which is basically a normal diet with slightly lowered calories to allow for weight loss. The average weight-loss maintenance on a VLED was about 15 pounds (29% of the total weight they had lost), compared to about 4.5 pounds (only 17% of the total weight they had lost) on a HBD. Basically, very low energy diets result in more weight loss and you’re likely to keep more of it off. Study itself: https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/74/5/579/4737391 https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/74/5/579/4737391 Summary quote from: http://gregnuckols.com/2013/06/04/slow-and-steady-weight-loss-i-think-not/ http://gregnuckols.com/2013/06/04/slow-and-steady-weight-los... Whose generally has good reputation in the science based fitness circles. Personally, I endorse this method.
ganafagol 6y ago
100x this. Hacker News is supposed to be a well-unformed place, no? Why does the dieting BS make its way here? > If I’m going to do something, it’s all-in baby. That's the problem right there. A healthy lifestyle does not work like that.

scaladev 6y ago

As someone who lost 30 kg of excess weight and kept it off for many years, I second this comment. I have a few acquaintances ("friends" as Americans like to call them) who have gone through literally dozens of fad diets over the years, and either never lost a single pound, or gained it all back after they stopped "dieting". Not a single long term success story among them. When they ask me how I managed to keep the weight off for such a long time, I simply answer "eating what I always have, and calorie counting". Nobody likes to hear that for some reason.

qz2 6y ago
> When they ask me how I managed to keep the weight off for such a long time, I simply answer "eating what I always have, and calorie counting". Nobody likes to hear that for some reason. That'll be because of the human condition of cheating which is roughly a combination of "I'll do it next week" and "It wont hurt me if I do this a couple of times (a week)" and the worst of all "I don't have to count this if I apply some magical condition to it". It only doesn't work if you don't do it which all of the above are. And people don't want to hear that because they don't like hearing that they're failing, especially when they are.
emerged 6y ago
I’ve been calorie counting for many years and work out an hour per day on average. My father insists that I’m “skinny” (not fat) because I was “born that way” and “lucky” Many people don’t like to attribute their failure, or others success, to personal responsibility.

dirtyid 6y ago

While Nutrition science is kind of a joke and you can find papers supporting any position, this is a summary of "Long-term weight-loss maintenance: a meta-analysis of US studies": >People on a very low energy diet (VLED) were more successful at dieting that people on a hypocaloric balanced diet (HBD) which is basically a normal diet with slightly lowered calories to allow for weight loss. The average weight-loss maintenance on a VLED was about 15 pounds (29% of the total weight they had lost), compared to about 4.5 pounds (only 17% of the total weight they had lost) on a HBD. Basically, very low energy diets result in more weight loss and you’re likely to keep more of it off. Study itself: https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/74/5/579/4737391 https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/74/5/579/4737391 Summary quote from: http://gregnuckols.com/2013/06/04/slow-and-steady-weight-loss-i-think-not/ http://gregnuckols.com/2013/06/04/slow-and-steady-weight-los... Whose generally has good reputation in the science based fitness circles. Personally, I endorse this method.

ganafagol 6y ago

100x this. Hacker News is supposed to be a well-unformed place, no? Why does the dieting BS make its way here? > If I’m going to do something, it’s all-in baby. That's the problem right there. A healthy lifestyle does not work like that.